Road workers in France are cleaning up after one million honeybees were killed after the vehicle that was transporting them crashed into a car in southern France. However tens of thousands survived only to attack emergency rescue teams.

The crash occurred on Tuesday when a van transporting 72 beehive frames, each containing around 20,000 bees, was involved in an accident with another car that crushed the hives it was carrying just outside the southern town of Saussenac.

According to the Local, both drivers were able to escape with only minor injuries.

The bees were not so lucky. Those that didn’t drown in their own supply of unprocessed honey turned on rescue teams as they worked to free the trapped drivers of the two vehicles.

Beekeeper Dominique Miras said that the bees were “glued into a kind of puree”.

Several thousands of the insects are believed to have flown to safety, and hives have been set up by the roadside in an attempt to lure them back.